This week’s reading, “Graffiti is Art” by Chaz Borquez gives a history of graffiti art in the United States with a focus on his experience painting in East Los Angeles. Borquez posits that graffiti started at the turn of the 20th century when shoeshine boys drew their names on walls to reserve their spots (p. 118). Borquez goes on to give a history of gang tagging and how their “placas” set neighborhood boundaries (p. 118). Finally, Borquez talks about how the traditionally counterculture of graffiti art is evolving with new artists that are receiving formal educations, getting their works published in galleries, videos, and other mainstream formats (p. 121).
I enjoyed this reading because although I don’t always find graffiti art visually appealing, it occurs to me that I don’t find all “mainstream art” visually appealing either, I always saw it’s purpose was to say, “look at me, I’m here, I’m not going anywhere.” Borquez says of graffiti art, “Los Angeles graffiti is a graffiti seeking respect, even some form of validation” (p. 120). Graffiti is an art form that tells society that the most vulnerable among us cannot just be segregated away in a vicious cycle of poverty.
This reading made me think about which forms of art we find acceptable, and which we find unacceptable. On the side of the 10 freeway we see huge advertisements ranging from hamburgers to clothes, and we find this acceptable. Why is it acceptable to have a huge burger hanging a hundred feet off the ground littering the backdrop of our beautiful city? Is it because society has deemed copywriting an acceptable art form? But we don’t jail the CEO’s of those huge advertising companies. No, we jail and fine the child who is beginning his career as an artist. We jail the guy who climbs up that billboard to tag it up, even when his only message is, “why is this art form acceptable, but not mine?”
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